Co-curricular Programs - Media & Technology

Technology

The technology curriculum at High Meadows School is designed to introduce educational technology skills in the following five areas:

	Word processing
	On-line information search
	Multi-media presentation
	Spreadsheet
	Databases

The five mentioned technology skills empower students with technology-enhanced learning tools that are appropriate to students’ age and characteristics, provide learners with visualized (multimedia) learning materials, immerse the new tools and skills seamlessly into the learning process, and promote and support High Meadows’ project-based learning approach.

The technology curriculum is designed to encourage students to become self-motivated, creative learners in the 21st century. Students develop adaptability to the fast changing living, learning, and working environment with the technology skills they learn at High Meadows School.

High Meadows technology curriculum standards are based on the national educational technology standards, and guided by our unique project-based approach. The standards are modified and updated yearly to meet the national educational technology standard requirements.

The technology program is offered to students from Kindergarten to 8th grade.

Fourth and fifth grade students:
While many technology skills are practiced and mastered, many new technology skills are introduced to fourth and fifth grade students. Keyboarding and word processing fundamentals are introduced. Touch-typing mastery is required. Online research becomes a very important part of the curriculum. At this level, the program focuses on developing online search criteria and strategies, selecting information relevant to research projects, and re-recognizing information to produce new knowledge are the focuses. Students are encouraged to work on projects independently. Technology-based multimedia presentation, graphs, charts, and concept maps are the major forms for students to present research results, projects and new concepts. Students are prepared to progress to the Middle Years program in which technology plays an important part in their daily academic program.

Middle Years students:
Middle Years students are required not only to know how to use the application tools (e.g. Microsoft Office), but also to use these programs in a meaningful and effective way to enhance their productivity and present their knowledge. The Middle Years technology curriculum is offered as mini-courses, in six week intervals. We design Computer Basics, Advanced Computer Utilization (ACU), Desktop Publishing, and Web Design mini-courses to meet Middle Years students’ needs and skill set. During mini-course sessions, students in 6th –8th grade come to the computer lab daily. The instructional time is 45 minutes each day. Computer Basics is required for 6th grade, and Advanced Computer Utilization for 7th and 8th grade. Desktop Publishing and Web Design are electives.

	The timetable of Internet History
	Research and Power Point presentation on telecommunication
	Middle Years Morning Café Budget Simulation project
	Class Contact Database
Students have full responsibility of planning, designing, and evaluating each project.

Computer Basics:
Computer Basics is designed for 6th grade students, and covers computer terminology, hardware & software basics, windows XP and OS basics, file and folder management, Microsoft Word, and Power Point productions. Students disassemble and assemble computer hardware devices and peripherals, customize and purchase computers in an on-line computer simulation site, edit and format documents in MS Word, and create interactive Power Point presentations. The hands-on projects are carefully designed to meet students’ learning needs and skill set. Peer observation, peer review, and self-evaluation are used to assess learner’ skills. Parent guest speakers are invited to speak about history of computer technology, technology career opportunities, and its development trends to broaden student knowledge.

Library & Media Center

The High Meadows library operates under an “Open Door” policy inviting children in at any time. The library is open at least 45 minutes before and after regular school hours each school day. There is a flexible schedule time available as well as regularly scheduled classroom visits enabling all students to visit the library on both a class visit basis and individual basis at least once a week. With collaborative planning, the curriculum the students experience in their classrooms is also experienced in the library.

Kindergarten – third grade students experience picture books, framed prints, informational and illustrated poetry posters, magazines, puppets and other objects related to classroom topics. The children in these two levels experience a full 20 minute program each week using developmentally appropriate reference books, picture books as well as an emphasis on the art ideas that can be derived from the illustrations of many of the picture books. Both group presentations and individual coaching in information access skills are also components of their library visit. Each student locates the title page, the copyright date, the index as well as the contents of various reference books. The High Meadows School library has multiple copies of many reference titles so that each student receives a copy and can examine his/her own reference book on an individual basis for the duration of the lesson. These same multiple copies of reference books can also be checked out for classroom use.

Fourth – fifth grade students visit the library for 45 minutes a week. Students experience a formal lesson for at least 40 of the 45 minutes. These lessons include intensive interactions with information access skills, fiction and picture books for older children, magazines, wall maps of political and geophysical interest, globes, maps for individual use, informational posters, note-taking practice from video productions, slides, framed prints, student study sheets, and audio recordings. Students use reference books about literature, social sciences, sciences, art, music as well as standard reference works such as general dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs and anthologies of poetry. Students locate sources of information as related to their classroom topics on the Internet. Locating authoritative sources of information through both print and electronic means is emphasized. Students' development of media literacy skills are a major theme of each library lesson so that they become discerning users of information, gaining skills of evaluation as to the worth of the many sources of information available through today's media. Official publications from a variety of governmental and non-profit agencies are made available for student perusal. Since the High Meadows School curriculum includes environmental awareness, original stories of outdoor experiences are frequently shared with the 4th/5th students.

Middle school students use all of the library's resources on a highly individualized basis in both their classrooms and in the Media Center. There is a special collection of fiction, non-fiction and periodicals developed specifically for them and are labeled Young Adult (YA). Middle school students have access to all of the holdings for students in the library.

The holdings of the library consist of approximately 7,500 books, some 10 books accompanied by CD-ROMs, 100 videos, 39 periodical subscriptions, 25 audio recordings, 10 View-Master non-fiction reels, two electronic encyclopedias, as well as a collection of books and teaching aids for teachers and a book collection for parents as well.The computer equipment includes three look-up stations for students which also include Internet access. The Media Center has a dish connection to televised broadcasts.

Reflecting the environmental and experiential emphasis of High Meadows School and the students' extensive outdoor experience, the library's interior is filled with both plants and objects intended for students to pick up and.use, such as small pieces of folk art, View-Master reels, stuffed literary characters, kaleidoscopes, and other articles of child appeal. The Library Media Center is filled with a multitude of potted plants and is seasonally decorated with natural artifacts, wreaths, framed prints, and changed every two months - all designed to make the children's visit a highly stimulating visual experience.